Our Home Away From Home - the Carriage House

A view of the Carriage House with Harlaxton Manor
in the distance.
When Harlaxton Manor was built in the 1830s it included an attached carriage house where the horses and carriages were kept. The Manor's owner, Gregory Gregory, soon decided he needed more space for this purpose and a larger carriage house was built about 150 yards from the Manor. This second carriage house has been turned into housing for students and two faculty apartments. We live in a flat called Gregory Cottage in the Carriage House.

The Carriage House from the front.

Our flat has a large entry way big enough for kicking around a soccer ball. It leads into all the rooms: 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, and bath.

What we like about the Carriage House

Joe: I like sharing a bedroom with Tom. I like being near the Sports Hall. I can run over there and shoot baskets or kick the soccer ball and it's only a minute from our house. We are close to the soccer pitch. We have woods behind us for nice scenery.

Tom: I like having a computer in our living

room. I like reading by the heater at

night.

Steph: At first I was disappointed to be in the Carriage House. It is rather plain compared to the ornate faculty rooms in the Manor. But once the weather got chilly I became practical. Old stone buildings get very cold. We have a never-ending supply of extremely hot water and a bathtub: perfect for chilly nights and chilly mornings. And our rooms have their own thermostat with radiators that get too hot to touch. The faculty in the Manor are envious - their rooms are drafty and cold and many of them share bathrooms.

The Few Problems We've Encountered

1. The hot water is too hot. With separate faucets for the hot and cold, the hot quickly becomes so hot that you don't dare put your hands under it.

2. I can't figure out the oven. In addition to the temperature knob, there is a second knob and a series of buttons with strange symbols for controlling the oven. I don't understand how they work together and I can't find any explanation for the symbols. I just push randomly until the oven begins to heat. I've burned one pizza and melted cheese over tortilla chips for the boys' snacks a few times. The stove top I can use and we've also got a microwave so with these I'm able to make a few hot lunches a week to bring to the boys at school.

3. The ceilings are too high. This is a problem because we have lots of spiders in our flat that like to hang out on the ceiling. I don't worry about the daddy-long-legs, but when we get a big, black spider I've got to get it down. I have to throw balled-up socks at it until it falls to the floor, then I catch it and throw it out the door. Despite my encounter with the spider in Warwick, I can't bring myself to kill them.

Joe Wins a Silver

Joe and his friend Jack hold the plaque the Harlaxton Boys Team received for finishing first among 10 primary school competing in the Grantham cross country races.

At an awards ceremony following the final one and a half kilometer cross country run, Joe received a silver medal for earning second place in the boys division. In the three races Joe finished second, fourth and second, with about 100 runners competing in each race. The boys and girls teams from Harlaxton Primary School each earned first place for their overall team records. Joe says he is glad the final race is over because now he can play on the computer instead of run down to the main gate and back in the morning. On one of those runs, Joe and mom got to see the geese fly in from the Denton Reservoir and land in unison in the Harlaxton lake and that was a beautiful sight.

North Wales

North Wales is a beautiful place with mountains, the Irish Sea, and fields in every shade of green that are full of wandering sheep. We stayed in the village of Llandudno which is on the coast and has mountains on both ends. After we arrived on Friday afternoon we rode a tram to the top of the Great Orm, the larger of the two mountains. It must be one of the windiest spots on earth - certainly the windiest place I have ever been. It felt like we had to hold on to keep from being blown right off the mountain and into the sea. Our coats and pant legs flapped and we had to yell to talk to one another. We walked down the mountain and when we were about 50 feet off the peak we were left with just a strong breeze. And a lot of sheep dung to step around. The sheep wander freely in the hills of this area.

Saturday we were back on the bus and visited three sites: a castle in Caernarfon, a village and a slate mine. The castle was very interesting and the most worthwhile part of the day. It was a massive structure but different from others we've seen because it was never finished. It saw battles and was used defensively, but never turned into the grand palace it was intended to be. It is more like a shell of a castle with many tall, empty towers, windows for shooting arrows, death holes for throwing rocks onto enemies: all the things that really impress the boys and left us thinking more about the battles fought at a castle than the life of the nobility who lived in them. The low stone wall on the right side of the photo shows where the Great Hall was started but never finished.

The slate mine tour could have been interesting but was poorly done and there was no guide to answer my many questions. We were on our own, 300 yards under ground, with recordings at each of 10 stops along the walk. Slate from the mines in North Wales provided shingles for the houses and buildings of all Europe and they continue to mine slate today (I read that in my guide book - didn't hear it on the tour.) It reminded me of visiting the coal mine in Ashland, Pennsylvania, near my dad's house. Outside the mine were huge piles of slate, the stuff not good enough to use, just like the slag piles of coal around that part of PA.
Sunday morning was surprisingly warm. The boys and I got up just after sunrise and walked on the beach. I had brought swimming suits along for them, certain they would end up swimming even if it started with a promise of just getting their feet wet. But the Irish Sea was too chilly for them. We walked along looking for shells; lots of empty clam shells covered the sand and rocks but just a few small pretty shells. I found a fossil (a trilobite) and they were fascinated with that. Just before the bus left we heard word of a giant jelly fish on the beach and we had to check that out. It was a huge glob of squishiness - disgusting yet fascinating.
Then another 5 hours on the bus, crossing Wales and most of England before we were back at Harlaxton Manor. The bus ride both ways was a miserable time. On Monday morning I still felt awful enough that I wasn't bothered by the fact that the cafeteria's fabulous coffee machine, which dispenses freshly made cappuccinos, espressos and lattes, was on the blink. My stomach couldn't handle the thought of coffee and that proves how very miserable the bus ride was!

Edinburgh, Scotland

Two weekends ago we traveled far to the north and spent a long weekend in Edinburgh. It is a magnificent city with museums, a castle, a cathedral, parks, and street after street lined with beautiful old buildings. All I could have asked for was better weather in which to enjoy all of it.







The Royal Mile is the street that leads from the castle down to the
Palace of Holyroodhouse, Scotland's royal residence.


Edinburgh's main sites are all located within a square mile making it a great walking city. But it is also a city built on an extinct volcano so walking up and down its streets is a workout. At the top of the old town is Edinburgh castle, which has such tremendous natural and man-made defences that it was never taken by force. The boys enjoyed a presentation in the Great Hall where Tom was asked to hold the knight's sword and to serve as a model while the knight explained how best to spear your enemy.















On one edge of the city is Arthur's Seat, another volcano that last erupted 350 million years ago. The hike to the top took about an hour but the views of the city and the North Sea (called the Firth of Forth) made it a worthwhile climb.

















This was when the weather started to change. We'd had a pleasant afternoon's walk through the city and for the climb up Arthur's Seat, but the wind and rain arrived shortly after we climbed down and we didn't see the sun for the next two days.














Thanks to the poor weather we did something very interesting that we'd never have done otherwise. On Saturday morning as we walked in the rain we passed the George Heriot school, saw it was holding an open house and went in for a visit. George Heriot was an Edinburgh goldsmith who became wealthy working for the King and he used his money to found a school for orphan boys in the 1600s (we had learned all this the day before at the castle.) The school is now a private school for children of wealthy Edinburgh families. We saw fencing competitions in the chapel, listened to bagpipe music, and then two students a little older than Joe walked us around the school grounds showing us classrooms and answering our many questions. We watched students conduct chemistry experiments, play water sports, and prepare snacks for us. In the computer classroom Joe programmed a robotic lego vehicle to drive through a course. What incredible opportunities these kids have and it all takes place in this fabulous old building that looks like a miniature castle. If I ever move to Edinburgh and have a lot of money, I know where I'll send my kids for school.

We spent time seeing paintings in the Scottish National Gallery and visiting the Royal Museum of Scotland where we saw all things Scottish like the earliest golf balls. And we ate the best pizza we've had on the entire trip. The restaurant was quite a distance from the hotel though, and by the time we were through I had to lead us back by reading a map in the dark, in the rain, in the wind. But it was worth it because I can't think of many things that give me more pleasure when I'm traveling than finding a really good restaurant.

Every evening we'd return to our hotel damp and chilled to the bone. Thankfully, the hotel had a 'leisure suite' and after a few rotations through the hot tub, sauna, and steam room, with brief dips in the pool to cool down in between, we'd go back to our room feeling toasty warm. Sounds like a great weekend - don't know why I complained about the weather.

A Walk to Woolsthorpe

Today was the perfect Autumn day with cool air, a pleasant breeze and plenty of sunshine. I spent the day walking to the village of Woolsthorpe and back, a journey of nearly 10 miles. This was a hike full of simple pleasures and a tasty meal at a pub called Chequers. Here's some of what I saw as I walked along the canal's towpath and on footpaths across fields and through woods.

The countryside is full of blackberry bushes - brambles they're called. They make a delicious treat when I'm out walking.

Belvoir Castle just outside the village of Woolsthorpe.

At one point on my way home when I was feeling more than a little lost, I looked over a hedgerow and spotted Harlaxton Manor off in the distance. Though still 2-3 miles away, I now knew which way to head.